CCM Fans and the club

[nebakke]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...f/news-story/b7c14f61c41068d6d5356f3bed8c02ab

“I think the situation is getting a lot better,” he said. “Two years ago, we were looking for more investors. Now, from a financial point of view, we’re in the strongest position we have been in since long before I took the club over. That was the year we won the title, and we lost $2m that year — it wasn’t a lot of fun, apart from the grand final.

“The following year we lost half that, last year some $400,000, and this year we’re hoping to break even or thereabouts. The last phase of our centre of excellence has been a commercial success, but the next phase will be something else all together.

I thought we broke even last year to much fan fare? Was it blown on Luis Garcia?

We broke even because of the on-sell fees received from Matty and Tesco - I'm guessing he's referring to the actual ongoing incomes vs outgoings

 

[dibo]

Yeah, I think there's a headline result and an operating result and you raise the two at different times as suits.

 

[VicMariner]

It's nice to hear positive things about our finances instead of the doom and gloom.

 

[Big Al]

Hey Shaun

Well done mate seem to be doing some good stuff with club. Keep up the good work

 

[Shaun Mielekamp]

Hey Shaun

Well done mate seem to be doing some good stuff with club. Keep up the good work

Hey thanks Big Al, with the amount of critics out there it is nice to know that the hard work is worth it all for people like yourself. We obviously know that we have a long long way to go and by no means do I feel like we have got things right yet - just a confidence that behind the scenes we are on the right track. Only time will tell I suppose.

 

[Shaun Mielekamp]

Coach sorted. Time for an away shirt sponsor

Ok done - what next?

 

[Big Al]

Ok done - what next?

Get the FFA and Gallop in particular to respect the coast. Seems he only using us while he needs us. He should be supporting us. You are only as strong as your weakest link.

There aren't the fish he wants unless he saturates Sydney and Melbourne

Club seems to be running very well under your leadership and all major issues now taken care of. Good job again.

It is easy to complain and we all do it but just as easy to say good job, which society doesn't seem to do much anymore. Keep it up

 

[Big Al]

Ok done - what next?

A win

 

[Atomic]

There has been a lot of discussion about the band, some good, some bad. What are you thoughts about their dress during for the walkout? I think they look like somewhat of a rabble, and I'm a little bit embarrassed by the way they look to be honest.

There also seems to be a lot of active support members angry about the band's dominance during chants. Active support has always been a bit of a prickly subject on these boards, and not being part of it, I'm loathed to give an opinion, but I did notice that any organic chants coming from Bay 16 last weekend were quickly drowned out by the band when they tried to join in. It is well intentioned, but just isn't working anymore in my opinion.

 

[Timmah]

While there are obvious issues with the band, I genuinely think the omission of @priorpeter on Saturday was part of the reason it may not have been at it's best in the active area.

 

[nebakke]

Get the FFA and Gallop in particular to respect the coast. Seems he only using us while he needs us. He should be supporting us. You are only as strong as your weakest link.

There aren't the fish he wants unless he saturates Sydney and Melbourne

Club seems to be running very well under your leadership and all major issues now taken care of. Good job again.

It is easy to complain and we all do it but just as easy to say good job, which society doesn't seem to do much anymore. Keep it up

Listening to the podcast this week, this might be a very big ask... I can see their justification, but I still can't believe that the FFA is only looking at areas with a 1 mill.+ catchment size - so much for having been setup to grow football across the country...

More to the point, I think that's immensely optimistic... In an ideal world, it means that the A-league system (in a future state with pro/rele etc.) can't support more than 20 teams, and that's assuming that there's some acceptance of overlap.
It also means that all teams will have to be located in the 5 major cities, with Adelaide completely unable to accomodate another team for the foreseeable future, Perth arguably able to manage, if they're allowed to place them somewhere around Mandurah, and even then it'd be a push.

So on their lineup it'd be something like:

Us and the Jest if we can remain financially stable - because we're already there.

Brisbane: 2
Sydney: 5 - And presumably Wollongong is out if we're not big enough.
Melbourne: 4
Adelaide: 1
Perth: 1 - MAYBE 2

No hope for Canberra, Tasmania, non-Brisbane QLD or any of the SA teams...

If those are the metrics, Pro/Rele is surely completely out of the question, whether now or in 20 years.

 

[Atomic]

While there are obvious issues with the band, I genuinely think the omission of @priorpeter on Saturday was part of the reason it may not have been at it's best in the active area.

Ah yes... of course. Good point.

 

[dibo]

Listening to the podcast this week, this might be a very big ask... I can see their justification, but I still can't believe that the FFA is only looking at areas with a 1 mill.+ catchment size - so much for having been setup to grow football across the country...

More to the point, I think that's immensely optimistic... In an ideal world, it means that the A-league system (in a future state with pro/rele etc.) can't support more than 20 teams, and that's assuming that there's some acceptance of overlap.
It also means that all teams will have to be located in the 5 major cities, with Adelaide completely unable to accomodate another team for the foreseeable future, Perth arguably able to manage, if they're allowed to place them somewhere around Mandurah, and even then it'd be a push.

So on their lineup it'd be something like:

Us and the Jest if we can remain financially stable - because we're already there.

Brisbane: 2
Sydney: 5 - And presumably Wollongong is out if we're not big enough.
Melbourne: 4
Adelaide: 1
Perth: 1 - MAYBE 2

No hope for Canberra, Tasmania, non-Brisbane QLD or any of the SA teams...

If those are the metrics, Pro/Rele is surely completely out of the question, whether now or in 20 years.

The FFA's Whole of Football Plan covers a lot of this. See this post from @rbakersmith some time ago:

Here's what the Whole of Football Plan has to say about the A-League (from page 83):

The A-League will be the most popular sporting competition in Australia.

STABLE AND SUSTAINABLE STRUCTURE
The A-League will be an actively managed and competitively balanced league within a stable and sustainable structure. What does that mean?

• It means that there will always be a role for a central body that can place the common good and long-term strategic objectives of the game at the heart of every decision.
• It means that the A-League will always be a competitively balanced league with the instruments of a salary cap, squad limits, player quotas and player acquisition rules.
• The best run and best organised clubs will rise to the top, but Australia’s national league will be based on collective commercialisation of rights and a centralised distribution of revenue to ensure the A-League does not become unbalanced.

In order for the A-League to become a financially strong and stable league, it must:

• Strengthen the operations of clubs by centralising select administrative services enabling clubs to focus on Football.
• Expand club Football operations and community engagement activities.
• Hold clubs accountable for core functions and benchmarks that will help the league to grow.
• Support our players by educating them as they enter professional sport and by assisting them to transition out of the professional playing ranks at the end of their careers.

COMPOSITION OF THE A-LEAGUE

• The A-League will aim to be the strongest Football league in our region.
• Every major Australian centre with a population over 500,000 has the market size to host an A-League club. A-League competition expansion will come as a product of sustainable commercial growth, via a managed process of “in and out” as circumstances arise, rather than a relegation and promotion system based purely on results. This is critical to retain the strategic market placement of clubs which underpins the commercial viability of the league.
• New entrants to the A-League will need to meet criteria based on funding, football development, stadium capacity and facilities, and community engagement that any NPL Club or New Consortium will need to satisfy:
  • In particular any NPL Club or New Consortium will need to be professionally run, and prove a concrete demand based on participation and population in a region.

INTEGRATE CLUBS AND COMMUNITIES
The loudest message that we heard during the Whole of Football Plan consultation period is that Australia’s professional clubs need to play a more active and prominent role in their communities.

• Clubs will help nurture a “Lifetime Relationship” with their fans. Fans will follow clubs and not just players. This will mean each club will have a unique identity with a multi-generational heritage and fans will feel a strong sense of connectedness.
• Football will provide the platforms and the support necessary so that Australia’s clubs can play a prominent role in their communities. This will result in 75% of participants supporting one of our Top Tier clubs.
• Football will ensure that the game is widely available by providing football content across as many media platforms as possible.
• The popularity of Australia’s clubs will be reflected in our growing membership numbers which will surpass one million members (ticketed and non-ticketed).

STRIVE FOR TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE
When we asked the Football community what you wanted from the A-League, the most popular answer was the “Best Australian players playing in Australia” – this must become a key objective. To achieve this we need to raise the standard of the whole league. This means that every Australian A-League club will have a world class facility and academy capable of producing world class Australian players.

ATMOSPHERIC STADIA
Football generates an atmosphere like no other sport in Australia. The Sydney and Melbourne derbies are the envy of every Australian sport and we want to re-create these atmospheres across the country.

• As a long-term goal we will ensure that A-League games are played in intimate stadiums where fans feel, and are, part of the action.
• We will create a differentiated match day experience to broadcast experience – including providing exclusive digital content in stadia.

The critical thing is:

"every major Australian region with a population over 500,000 has the market size to host an A-League club"

The very interesting (if you are, like me, a nerd) forecast.id.com.au does not yet have a combined Central Coast Council population projection, but they have the Gosford and Wyong projections - Gosford is projected to go from 172k to 189k by 2036 and Wyong from 161k to 216k. That means the combined area goes from 332k to 405k.

That's not far from the 500k that the FFA's talking about. Frankly, we're 2/3 there right now, and we have a team already. Add on Hornsby Shire (170k) and we're there right now, and I'm pretty sure we do OK for memberships there..

Also, as anyone with a decent grasp of logic knows, every =/= only, so there's nothing in that to preclude smaller areas from keeping or even getting an A-League club.

The test has to be whether the club can survive. We've got a long history of surviving (and for most of our history, doing better than that - we've only missed finals four times in 11 years!) so I think we're fine.

If we're in danger, so are Newcastle and Wellington, obviously, but so is Perth - their average crowd was not that much bigger than ours and their average ratings are very similar. If anything, given their shitty numbers and the fact they have six times the population of the Central Coast, they're proof that simply having population behind you doesn't guarantee shit.

 

[nebakke]

The test has to be whether the club can survive. We've got a long history of surviving (and for most of our history, doing better than that - we've only missed finals four times in 11 years!) so I think we're fine.

If we're in danger, so are Newcastle and Wellington, obviously, but so is Perth - their average crowd was not that much bigger than ours and their average ratings are very similar. If anything, given their shitty numbers and the fact they have six times the population of the Central Coast, they're proof that simply having population behind you doesn't guarantee shit.

Oh i wasn't so much suggesting that we're in danger as i was suggesting that the FFA seems to have either forgotten why they were created or just ignored it. The numbers that i mentored actually came from Shaun - he says on the podcast that they went to the FFA and asked what they needed to do and the FFA response was that they are looking for catchment areas between 1 and 1.1 million.
That doesn't match with the whole of football vision.

But this is why i stated that it becomes extra important for us to remain viable because i don't see them taking away an existing licence if they don't need to - they have plenty of problems without creating more themselves.

 

[Wombat]

Ok done - what next?

Experienced Centre Back and Attacking Mid thanks Shaun.

 

[style_cafe]

Ok done - what next?

ummm.... how about fixing the score board so that those beyond the halfway can see it?....
Ps. Nice to meet you last weekend.

 

[dibo]

Oh i wasn't so much suggesting that we're in danger as i was suggesting that the FFA seems to have either forgotten why they were created or just ignored it. The numbers that i mentored actually came from Shaun - he says on the podcast that they went to the FFA and asked what they needed to do and the FFA response was that they are looking for catchment areas between 1 and 1.1 million.
That doesn't match with the whole of football vision.

But this is why i stated that it becomes extra important for us to remain viable because i don't see them taking away an existing licence if they don't need to - they have plenty of problems without creating more themselves.

You've nailed it with the bolded point. As long as we have a club that pays the bills and can play some football, we're going to be OK. We can see signs of not being as dire as last year already, and we can also see that the business side is coming around. It's simply not worth it to the FFA to blow up a club that's broadly working (not least because it'll scare the shit out of potential new club investors).

With luck the COE gets itself finished off as soon as possible and we get the management rights for the Stadium to start work on little improvements.

We can't help but put a lot of stock in the new TV deal, but we're not Robinson Crusoe there.

On the 1m vs 500k thing; I think that's a timing thing. They're signalling that the next move is into places with millions rather than hundreds of thousands.

But I think that because they're laying out solid criteria for how the new clubs are chosen, if someone can put together a compelling business case I think they'll be considered, even if they don't hit 500k (this is the importance of distinguishing between every and only).

I wouldn't bet against the next three rounds of expansion being done pairwise - one capital city club and one regional (with Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane providing the capital clubs and Canberra, Geelong and maybe the Gold Coast providing the regional options).

That way we're deepening our contact in the big markets and broadening the footprint at the same time.

I think they're genuinely keen to get to 16 teams.

16 teams = 30 rounds x 8 games = 240 matches. It's a lot of content, and far more than the 135 they currently provide over 27 weeks.

More content = more highlights = an easier sell for the TV news too...

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

There has been a lot of discussion about the band, some good, some bad. What are you thoughts about their dress during for the walkout? I think they look like somewhat of a rabble, and I'm a little bit embarrassed by the way they look to be honest.

There also seems to be a lot of active support members angry about the band's dominance during chants. Active support has always been a bit of a prickly subject on these boards, and not being part of it, I'm loathed to give an opinion, but I did notice that any organic chants coming from Bay 16 last weekend were quickly drowned out by the band when they tried to join in. It is well intentioned, but just isn't working anymore in my opinion.

Completely correct regarding the band.
I've played the drum in bay 16 since day 1 but have had enough of putting up with the amount of them. All the extra drummers that aren't needed. Just sounds like one big drum kit, making it worse is when the over elaborate and don't know the chant.

We only need a few horns at most.

And they don't need to play on every damn chant, some chants should be vocal only. Otherwise there's no point to us being there at all. Just have the band play a 90 minute set of all the chant classics.

Not to mention the speed at which they perform, not only do they drown us out they speed it up to.

Over it.

 

[FFC Mariner]

#FTB

 

[priorpeter]

Completely correct regarding the band.
I've played the drum in bay 16 since day 1 but have had enough of putting up with the amount of them. All the extra drummers that aren't needed. Just sounds like one big drum kit, making it worse is when the over elaborate and don't know the chant.

We only need a few horns at most.

And they don't need to play on every damn chant, some chants should be vocal only. Otherwise there's no point to us being there at all. Just have the band play a 90 minute set of all the chant classics.

Not to mention the speed at which they perform, not only do they drown us out they speed it up to.

Over it.

I haven't really voiced my opinion on here about it before (or have I? I'm usually pretty drunk on here but hey ho) but in short Jim has hit the nail on the head here for me.
Band worked very well when they first came in 3 years ago and there was only a couple of them.
Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten a bit out of hand. As Jim said above, we only need a couple of horns, couple of drums, and that's it. Lovely people, and appreciate their support, but yeah I think it's really gotta be scaled back.